tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29580999893806700892024-02-27T12:03:36.816-05:00Trackstreamer - Streaming Scanner AudioStreaming police and fire radio chatter from Fort Lauderdale and Key West, Florida. This blog is for news and updates. View my web site to read about my setup. Mobile viewers "view web version" to see the listen links.Bote Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12924676358156839751noreply@blogger.comBlogger196125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2958099989380670089.post-14772825926841246482024-02-27T12:02:00.002-05:002024-02-27T12:02:54.528-05:00Railfan Scanner Is Here<p> Uniden has finally released the BCD260DN scanner that receives analog FM as well as <b>NXDN</b> and <b>DMR</b> (MotoTRBO) digital modes. It does not follow trunking systems, they want the big bucks for the SDS200 to do that.<br /></p><p><span class="x193iq5w xeuugli x13faqbe x1vvkbs x1xmvt09 x1lliihq x1s928wv xhkezso x1gmr53x x1cpjm7i x1fgarty x1943h6x xudqn12 x3x7a5m x6prxxf xvq8zen xo1l8bm xzsf02u x1yc453h" dir="auto"></span></p><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">The AAR (American Association of Railroads) has settled on NXDN as the digital mode of choice for U.S. railroads going to narrowband. F.E.C. has made a couple attempts, but is still in good old analog FM. If and when they ever switch this scanner should be ready for them and all the others.</div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;"> </div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">Plus, a recent road trip revealed that many public safety agencies in smaller jurisdictions have switched to MotoTRBO or NDXN, so this would be good for someone, say, in south Georgia or along the panhandle of Floriduhhh. </div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;"> </div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">I don't own one, in fact nobody does yet because they're still in pre-sale at the time of this writing in late February 2024, but they're supposed to start shipping some time in March. <br /></div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">I get a cut from Amazon if you buy it from them, as you would expect.<br /></div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;"> </div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;"><a href="https://amzn.to/49waheL" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Amazon link to buy</a></div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;"> </div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmQ9ZQlOD6DQYrf0uOlXT50xAhyPoucZlmtaHm9UKbLSHiE5eBLLbH5nAmyTwhvmVffUkyO-zUa9qN82ImYXy-tG1GC-Ze7B0h1RV-Rk65s7xL2Mu0-6feXM-MIAKCdqiMCHS95cOSdjLHbsrMzRp0_AW9mEKdorXLuiCNqclsUfNwDAJqUOrEdUwAo0q-/s2000/BCD260DN_oblique.webp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Uniden BCD260DN scanner" border="0" data-original-height="602" data-original-width="2000" height="120" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmQ9ZQlOD6DQYrf0uOlXT50xAhyPoucZlmtaHm9UKbLSHiE5eBLLbH5nAmyTwhvmVffUkyO-zUa9qN82ImYXy-tG1GC-Ze7B0h1RV-Rk65s7xL2Mu0-6feXM-MIAKCdqiMCHS95cOSdjLHbsrMzRp0_AW9mEKdorXLuiCNqclsUfNwDAJqUOrEdUwAo0q-/w400-h120/BCD260DN_oblique.webp" width="400" /></a></div><br /> <br /></div><p></p>Bote Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02542132356515509609noreply@blogger.com0St. Augustine, FL, USA29.8921835 -81.3139313-0.4776632908453351 -116.4701813 60.262030290845338 -46.157681299999993tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2958099989380670089.post-85555577951096104432023-11-15T16:08:00.005-05:002023-12-02T18:45:19.989-05:00Southernmost Feed Broken<p>UPDATE: 2023.12.02 Thanks to my good friend Lu, Bote's Southernmost Feed is back up. BUT! The same problem that started with the Windows Update is still taking down the network interface at random times for random durations. Until I can figure out why it will just go haywire sometimes. Best I can do with this hobby project.</p><p>-----</p><p>Windows Update upset the network driver in the Key West feed computer. In the process of troubleshooting it the thing never came back from a reboot. It's down there and I'm up here, so it will probably be some time before anybody can walk up to the screen and see what it's trying to tell us.</p><p>Networking is the one thing that can kill a remote system like that. It figures.<br /></p>Bote Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02542132356515509609noreply@blogger.com1224 Duval St, Key West, FL 33040, USA24.5581348 -81.804661724.557890842213631 -81.804929920901486 24.558378757786372 -81.804393479098508tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2958099989380670089.post-7450776938613795612023-03-06T09:09:00.005-05:002023-03-06T11:16:13.531-05:00Comcast Murders Broward Feeds<p>UPDATE: As of 11:05 Comcast is back up, but it keeps going out for a few minutes at a time. I guess they're disconnecting network nodes along the line back to their head-end. Expect brief outages the rest of the day. <br /></p><p>Comcast promised their Xfinity cable internet service would go down for an extended period of time in order to allow them to "upgrade" their network to whatever 10G means this week. I guess today is the day because there's a truck with a ladder up to a utility pole and no bits are flying across my cable modem.</p><p>When it comes back, all the Broward feeds will come back:</p><p>Bote's Mixer Board</p><p>Bote's Wild Feed</p><p>Bote's F.E.C. Oakland Park feed</p><p>Bote's CSX/SFRTA Oakland Park feed</p><p>Good thing I'm building a system locally on my bench LAN today and that still works just peachy keen!<br /></p>Bote Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02542132356515509609noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2958099989380670089.post-63037164147588914562023-01-30T16:05:00.005-05:002023-02-02T02:55:03.045-05:00Key West Feed Kerflooey AGAIN<p>UPDATE: 2023.02.01 19:33 service restored, thanks to Remote Desktop (for a change).</p><p>Same ol, same ol. Windows Update -> Windows Explorer (Desktop in reality) crashed -> black screen</p><p>No E.T.R.</p><p>Hopefully, we can get somebody down there to reboot it, but that's not a guarantee.</p><p><span class="x193iq5w xeuugli x13faqbe x1vvkbs x1xmvt09 x1lliihq x1s928wv xhkezso x1gmr53x x1cpjm7i x1fgarty x1943h6x xudqn12 x3x7a5m x6prxxf xvq8zen xo1l8bm xzsf02u x1yc453h" dir="auto">I hope to replace that p.o.s. laptop with a more powerful machine, but will need time to make the preparations. Good luck with that.</span></p><p><span class="x193iq5w xeuugli x13faqbe x1vvkbs x1xmvt09 x1lliihq x1s928wv xhkezso x1gmr53x x1cpjm7i x1fgarty x1943h6x xudqn12 x3x7a5m x6prxxf xvq8zen xo1l8bm xzsf02u x1yc453h" dir="auto">If I could get VSThost to run on linux I'd get rid of Windows yesterday!</span></p>Bote Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17058421096556257941noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2958099989380670089.post-59443007866385099072023-01-13T16:25:00.005-05:002023-01-14T23:52:05.045-05:00Railroad Feeds Funky<p><b>UPDATE:</b> I rebuilt Windows and re-installed the latest versions of the software. It was needed anyway. There might still be a reboot or two upcoming as I tweak a few settings, but all Broward feeds are back online. I will also tweak audio levels as I try to balance everything again.<br /></p><p>After FP&L blew up a transformer which took out our electricity for a couple hours, now SDRsharp is acting funky. I guess it's high time to upgrade to the latest, greatest release, but I don't know if that will fix this problem or not. It could be due to the latest Windows Update.<br /></p>Bote Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02542132356515509609noreply@blogger.com01201 NE 38th St, Oakland Park, FL 33334, USA26.1743095 -80.131354626.17334663380775 -80.132427483605952 26.17527236619225 -80.130281716394038tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2958099989380670089.post-4662286549644616532022-09-28T07:49:00.006-04:002022-09-28T17:38:54.548-04:00Hurricane Ian updates<p> Hurricane Ian knocked out power to so much of Key West that most of the island can be considered without electrical power today. Bote's Southernmost Feed lasted as long as the big UPS batteries allowed, but finally lost power around 07:00 this morning. Keys Electric Coop crews were heard talking on the radio just before the feed went down, so it's only a matter of time before power is restored and we can get somebody to walk over and turn on the feed computer and everything.</p><p>Meanwhile, Broward County is getting hit with some gusty breezes. I saw an unconfirmed 911 report of a tornado near Oakland Park Blvd and the ocean, but nothing heard on the scanner so far. We might yet lose power here at our world HQ as gusty as it has become this morning.</p><p><b>UPDATE:</b> Electrical power was restored around noon Wednesday, so Bote's Southernmost Feed is back online. For now I'm leaving Florida Keys Electric talkgroups enabled so we can hear the extent of damage and some people might even hear when their power is to be restored, which is nice. </p><p>The airport is open, although the airlines have not resumed service as of this writing. Their Internet service is still out, which is a very common problem in the Keys. I'll have to listen for the daily crash phone test tomorrow morning; I missed the one on Wednesday because the power died on the stream about a half hour earlier.</p>Bote Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17058421096556257941noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2958099989380670089.post-87938128563293072252022-09-23T11:25:00.001-04:002022-09-23T11:26:43.788-04:00Weather Tweeps<p> A list of good accounts to follow on <a href="https://twitter.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Twitter</a> for reliable information about South Florida weather and tropical systems in the Atlantic.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Scientists at NHC and Other Tropical Researchers</h3><p>@NHC_Atlantic - official National Hurricane Center account</p><p>@NHC_TAFB</p><p>@AndrewHagen</p><p>@philklotzbach</p><div><p>@TropicalTidbits</p></div><div><p>@BMcNoldy</p></div><div><p>@EricBlake12</p></div><div><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Hurricane Hunters (actually fly the planes into hurricanes)</h3><p>@TheAstroNick</p><p>@JeremyDeHart53d</p><p><br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Weather Forecasters</h3><p>@NWSMiami</p><p>@NWSTampaBay</p><p>@NWSKeyWest</p><p>@NWSCPC</p><p>@JohnMoralesTV</p><div><p>@lukedorrisWPLG</p><p>@FloridaStorms</p></div><div><p>@SammyHadiWx</p></div><div><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Automated Accounts</h3><p>@iembot_mfl</p><p><br /></p>Bote Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17058421096556257941noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2958099989380670089.post-189045870761276132021-04-21T12:49:00.005-04:002021-04-23T08:26:49.859-04:00Key West feed kerflooey<p>UPDATE 2021.04.23 - Bote's Southernmost Feed has been restored to service thanks to the efforts of a loyal local listener. The screen was blank no matter what we did so a power cycle brought it back to life. Aint Windows 10 great?? <br /></p><p>The Southernmost Feed has gone off into space (again). And Windows 10 was supposed to be so solid and reliable. And today is Wednesday which typically follows Tuesday, which is the big Windows Update day, so...I thought I disabled all that automatic update stuff so that I could supervise it to prevent <b>THIS EXACT PROBLEM</b>.<br /></p><p>As soon as a local contact person can make it over to the feed site to reboot it, the thing will be back online, but that likely won't happen until tomorrow. This is a hobby, after all.<br /></p>Bote Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17058421096556257941noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2958099989380670089.post-44250044482550912122021-04-06T14:27:00.007-04:002021-04-07T12:22:19.522-04:00Comcast Up and Down<p>UPDATE 2021.04.07: Comcast has been stable for the better part of 24 hours so I'll declare things up and running again. Now the trouble is that I have a new public i.p. address, so I have to update that address in the other end of my point-to-point VPN links, which is not going well.</p><p>*** <br /></p><p>Comcrap has been up and down all morning (mostly down) so the Broward area feeds have followed suit. </p><p> I'm not declaring that things are back up until at least tomorrow. Comcast's app first said it would be repaired by 3PM, then when I checked an hour later it said by 4PM. Extending the promised repair time is their oldest trick in the book.</p><p>Just be patient. You be patient, sir, or you won't get anything.<br /></p>Bote Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17058421096556257941noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2958099989380670089.post-78175347897364943662021-03-03T13:45:00.001-05:002021-03-03T13:45:42.135-05:00New Marine Feed, Broward CAD Down<p>It looks like Broward fire is no longer transmitting their USDD Computer-Aided Dispatch calls over a talkgroup on the old Project 16 trunked system, so I abandoned that and lit up a new VHF marine feed on Broadcastify.</p><p>I'm looking for a host in a tall condo near the beach to host the thing for better coverage. For now it's about 3 miles from the ocean and can hear vessels calling Oakland Park and Sunrise bridge tenders, but not the bridges themselves since they transmit at very low power.</p><p><a href="https://www.broadcastify.com/listen/feed/34989" target="_blank"> https://www.broadcastify.com/listen/feed/34989</a> <br /></p><p>Enjoy!</p><p><br /></p>Bote Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17058421096556257941noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2958099989380670089.post-11275564461178317492020-12-04T20:57:00.007-05:002020-12-05T12:41:01.558-05:00Host Outage<p>19:38 - The web host for listen.trackstreamer.com is experiencing a major outage tonight. My feeds will come back online when they do. </p><p>No E.T.R. yet.</p><p>UPDATE: OK, I think it's REALLY back on. Crappy Friday + weekend for the techs working this problem at the co-lo facility, though.<br /></p>Bote Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17058421096556257941noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2958099989380670089.post-39930741454255254502020-12-02T17:38:00.000-05:002020-12-02T17:38:00.202-05:00Broward County Goes P25<p> You might have noticed that the old Broward County Project 16 analog trunked system has recently gotten very quiet. That's because they have switched over to their shiny new Project 25 digital trunked system.</p><p>Because it is new and we are hobbyists and not the radio shop, we don't know all the new talkgroups and need to map them out. This takes time and a coordinated effort by interested hobbyists who know their favorite areas well enough to infer what the new talkgroups are used for when it is not obvious.</p><p>As of right now only Bote's Mixer Board still hums along with Fort Lauderdale public safety stuff. Bote's Wild feed will go silent when Broward Fire Dispatch 1 switches over to the new P25 system. I hope to find the time to develop a suitable receive setup for the new P25 Phase 2 (TDMA) trunked system.</p><p>Stay tuned.<br /></p>Bote Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17058421096556257941noreply@blogger.com11300 W Broward Blvd, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33312, USA26.1216127 -80.15890399999999326.120649398337363 -80.15997688360595 26.122576001662637 -80.157831116394036tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2958099989380670089.post-61341467150062776242020-08-02T17:55:00.001-04:002020-08-02T17:55:27.027-04:00Non-Hurricane Isaias Update<div>I took down the antenna for the F.E.C. Railway Oakland Park feed in anticipation of high winds from Hurricane Isaias, but that storm turned out to be a nothingburger for SoFLA. So the antenna is back up and you can once again hear all the exciting railroad action on both Florida East Coast and CSX/SFRTA/Tri-Rail on the same feed.</div><div><br /></div><div>The right channel carries the road frequency while the left channel carries everything else. You will find it an effective combination.</div><div><br /></div>Bote Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17058421096556257941noreply@blogger.com01201 NE 38th St, Oakland Park, FL 33334, USA26.1743192 -80.131252826.173356337647835 -80.132325683605956 26.175282062352164 -80.130179916394042tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2958099989380670089.post-39174118951165072632020-06-26T03:39:00.002-04:002020-06-26T16:55:11.445-04:00Key West feed Windows UpdatesUPDATE: All Windows Updates have been applied, weirdness corrected, now streaming normally (until the next update!)<br />
<br />
Bote's Southernmost Feed is in the midst of a massive Windows Update and will return when they have been applied and rebooted about a billion times.Bote Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17058421096556257941noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2958099989380670089.post-56221524145935155462020-05-15T01:44:00.003-04:002020-05-16T10:19:54.095-04:00CUTOVERPlease refresh your DNS or restart your player to pick up the new DNS entry pointing to listen.trackstreamer.com (which is the same as listen.botecomm.com now).<br />
<br />
It might be a little bumpy the nexty day or two, but it should even out once I get everything settled down. I'm trying something that might not work.<br />
<br />
UPDATE 1: 2020.05.15 11:35 EDT - Well, that didn't work. Still more configurururing to figure out. Computers, huh?<br />
<br />
UPDATE 2: 2020.05.16 10:17 - So far, so good. Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance. Bote Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17058421096556257941noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2958099989380670089.post-49007212523835794922020-03-04T14:50:00.000-05:002020-03-04T14:50:13.110-05:00Feed Update Summary FEC Boca/Villa Rica feed <span style="color: yellow;"><span style="background-color: red;">DOWN</span></span>, no E.T.R.; needs a new hard drive and maybe an entirely new approach.<br />
<br />
FEC Oakland Park is
up, but with the crappy antenna system doesn't hear very well. I can
hear more sitting in my car out front. One of these years I gotta order
proper connectors and mounts to get it hearing better.<br />
<div class="text_exposed_show">
<br />
Mixer Board (Ft Lauderdale), Wild Feed (east Broward), and Southernmost Feed (Key West) public safety feeds all up.<br />
<br />
***<br />
<br />
I hope to develop a simple feed client setup that can be plopped down
anywhere. I prefer to do it with linux since that is free (as in beer),
but I do have pretty much the perfect setup figured out with Windows 10. The problem
with Windows is licensing, which is not free (as in beer).<br />
<br />
I had
grandiose plans to put feeds along the CSX A-Line, but for now I'll
stick to FEC, especially as they expand passenger service north to Cocoa
and Orlando. Motivation is low since nobody really listens to my FEC
Oakland Park feed. I guess it's because they can't take photos of trains
through the feed; that's all that matters to "railfans" these days.</div>
Bote Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17058421096556257941noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2958099989380670089.post-14195337436786315602020-01-04T15:35:00.000-05:002020-01-06T13:32:14.314-05:00KYW Feed Black ScreenUPDATE 2020.01.06 - The Key West feed has been restored to normal operation.<br />
<br />
The Key West feed has a black/blank screen and won't do anything useful. It's alive, though. Hopefully all it needs is a reboot which should be taken care of in the next couple of days.<br />
<br />
My money is on another unrequested Windows Update restart going haywire. We shall see.Bote Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17058421096556257941noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2958099989380670089.post-16672664191119172862019-12-13T11:28:00.002-05:002019-12-13T11:28:44.494-05:00Windows 10 Updates Killed KYW FeedThe Key West feed got munged by Micro$oft Windows 10 updates doing whatever the hell they wanted despite the setting to allow ME to choose when to apply them.<br />
<br />
If I could run this stuff under linux I would, but we're stuck with the vagaries of Windows for the time being. As soon as the updates finish applying service should be restored.<br />
<br />
Hell of a way to run an operating system!<br />
<br />Bote Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17058421096556257941noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2958099989380670089.post-11992094790968063052019-10-20T22:11:00.001-04:002019-10-20T22:11:53.127-04:00Key West Feed UnGlitchedI have replaced the Key West "Southernmost Feed" with a newer computer that is a little more capable and updated the audio processor on it. But there's only so much one can do with narrowband P25 audio.<br />
<br />
Hopefully it will stay up for more than a few days this time.Bote Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17058421096556257941noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2958099989380670089.post-31554656301312458572019-10-03T10:58:00.001-04:002019-10-03T10:58:30.003-04:00Power GlitchesThe batteries in the U.P.S. (uninterruptible power supply) have gone bad and the frequent power glitches in Key West have left some of the equipment in an odd state. So until that is rectified the Key West feed is down.<br />
<br />
This is a big enough deal that I don't see it getting repaired before some time next week.Bote Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17058421096556257941noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2958099989380670089.post-74799816285698032142019-09-14T10:19:00.000-04:002019-09-14T10:19:48.451-04:00Fiber Optic CutThe data carrier that provides upstream service to the server's I.S.P. has suffered a fiber optic cable cut that is affecting a broad swath of customers. This is why all the feeds are intermittently playing the "no uplink" music as bandwidth is congested on their backup link.<br />
<br />
This is a major outage that will take some time to repair so we just have to live with it until it is back to normal.Bote Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17058421096556257941noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2958099989380670089.post-46045548894115715822019-07-24T11:19:00.003-04:002019-07-24T11:20:25.703-04:00Key West Feed RestoredThanks to some timely help, Bote's Southernmost Feed is back up!<br />
<br />
I guess it's time to replace the feed computer, but at least the immediate pressure to get it back online has been relieved. I will post updates here as needed.<br />
<br />
Thanks to all who helped this time.Bote Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17058421096556257941noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2958099989380670089.post-73395930238021032622019-07-23T17:52:00.000-04:002019-07-23T17:52:27.287-04:00Key West feed failureAbout 17:45 today the Key West streaming scanner feed died. No idea why, no E.T.R. as I am swamped here in Broward County with important tasks to complete on a deadline.Bote Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17058421096556257941noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2958099989380670089.post-53157971822407611992019-04-09T21:25:00.000-04:002019-04-09T21:25:20.638-04:00FEC Delray Beach Feed OnlineI'm testing a new Florida East Coast Railway feed in south Delray Beach near F.E.C. control point "Villa Rica" and the milepost 319.1 defect detector.<br />
<br />
That's about all it hears so this feed might not last long, but we shall see how useful it is.<br />
<br />
All the details about all the feeds are <a href="http://www.botecomm.com/bote/radio/streaming.html" target="_blank">on my web site</a> since that's the only thing I can count on not to change behind my back, unlike Google+, Blogspot, Facebook, and all the rest of those evil data miners.Bote Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17058421096556257941noreply@blogger.com0501 Lamat Ave, Delray Beach, FL 33483, USA26.429907709260714 -80.074951776020126.429463209260714 -80.0755822760201 26.430352209260715 -80.0743212760201tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2958099989380670089.post-64151228659447038082019-01-30T12:57:00.000-05:002019-01-30T12:57:40.410-05:00FEC Feed Grows UpSoftware-Defined Radio is impressive! I'm testing it for a time on my F.E.C. Fort Lauderdale feed.<br />
<br />
I recently started playing with <a href="http://sdr-radio.com/" target="_blank">SDR-Console</a> to investigate whether it could make a reasonable alternative to Uniden scanners for my railroad feed(s) and am blown away at its capabilities.<br />
<br />
SDR-Console (among other programs) can monitor multiple frequencies simultaneously, as long as they all lie within the chunk of spectrum being sampled. With the Florida East Coast Railway using 3 primary channels lying within 300KC of each other this is a piece of cake!<br />
<br />
The cool part is that, unlike a scanner, the SDR doesn't sample a channel and then move on; it just hears everything at once without missing anything. So you can look at the spectrum display and see signals pop up on the road channel while a train is reading back a Form 82-T on the dispatcher talkback channel. It can be confusing, but it is neat, NEAT, <b>NEAT!!</b><br />
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Another benefit of SDR is that you control the vertical, you control the horizontal; you can change the focus to a soft blur, or sharpen it to crystal clarity. Because Uniden scanners have been proven not to have true narrowband i.f. filtering the SDR provides superior signal to noise ratio when the proper narrow bandwidth is selected. This improves intelligibility of weak signals on top of being just plain more sensitive than my Uniden 996XT scanner that I had been running.<br />
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I can also steer each received frequency to a different audio channel so the Road channel appears on the right while the Dispatcher talkback frequency is heard on the left channel. You won't miss a quick transmission while waiting for the scanner to toggle back and forth because SDR is always listening!<br />
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And unlike a commercial-grade radio from Mother Motorola, you're not stuck with the programming (via finicky PC programming), you can just change the frequency or any other parameter on the fly and be happy while still enjoying better than average radio performance.<br />
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Now I gotta figure out the best way to run this stuff economically out in the field. Stay tuned!Bote Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17058421096556257941noreply@blogger.com0